One World Futbol Project soccer balls are shown in Oakland, Calif., Tuesday, July 6, 2010. Tim Jahnigen put his mind to inventing a ball that would never wear out, one he insists is the most durable of any "futbol" out there, made of closed cell foam andsimilar material to those popular rubber Crocs sandals.

Photo: Jeff Chiu, AP

One World Futbol Project soccer balls are shown in Oakland, Calif.,...

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Boys at a child-soldier rehabilitation camp in Rwanda were each given a One World Futbol. Made out of a similar material to Croc sandals, the ball is designed to withstand harsh conditions and never go flat.

Photo: Photo By B. Sager

Boys at a child-soldier rehabilitation camp in Rwanda were each...

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Tim Jahnigen and Lisa Tarver founded the One World Futbol project, which created a durable soccer ball with the goal of giving away 1 million balls over three years to children in places like Afghanistan, Iraq and Haiti.

Surrounded by barbed wire, amid hovels made of plastic, cardboard and sticks, children were playing an infectious game of soccer - using trash instead of a ball.

Those images of Darfur refugees on CNN "were heartbreaking and inspiring at the same time," said Tim Jahnigen, a Berkeley inventor, musician and music producer. "I saw children desperate to play, living in a world where nothing makes sense and they've been traumatized by irrational violence. In their innocence, they were willing to play with anything."

A narrator explained that the children's harsh environment meant that balls went flat almost instantly.

Jahnigen had a brainstorm: What if he could create a soccer ball that would last a lifetime, never need pumping and would withstand razor wire, sharp rocks and broken glass?

It took nearly five years and the help of the musician Sting for that vision to become a reality. This month, just as World Cup fever was at a pitch, Jahnigen and his wife, Lisa Tarver, introduced the One World Futbol, an all-terrain, extremely durable soccer ball made of closed-cell foam similar to that used in Croc sandals.

The ball's name is inspired by Sting's song, "One World." The couple's goal is to distribute 1 million balls over the next three years to children in places ravaged by war, poverty and natural disasters.

Jahnigen spent the final days of the World Cup in South Africa meeting with officials from FIFA, the international governing body of soccer, and nonprofit groups to help publicize the ball; he also traveled to some townships to give them away.

Surviving a lion

One ball went to a different customer: a lion at the Johannesburg zoo. "He played with it like a kitten to the point of exhaustion," Jahnigen said. "The zoo director said they give him balls for stimulation but they usually just last a minute. This one has tooth marks and punctures all through it, but it still works."

To make the project sustainable, the couple is combining a for-profit company with a nonprofit foundation, both based in Napa (oneworldfutbol.com). For each $39.50 ball sold, they'll donate a second one to an area in need. The foundation also will accept donations from people who want to send balls around the world. Nonprofits get a deep discount on the cost.

When Jahnigen first had the idea, he and his wife had just poured all their resources into another venture, infrared warming devices for animal therapy. So it went on the back burner until a chance conversation with Sting, whose bi-annual Rainforest Fund concert Jahnigen helps produce.

Sting mentioned that some friends had just financed the construction of a soccer field in Gaza.

"Then Tim told me about his idea for a soccer ball that would never deflate, never need a pump and could be played on any surface," Sting said in a statement. "It was suddenly obvious to me that putting a little money into producing soccer balls like that could go a whole lot farther than building soccer fields."

Expertise donated

Sting offered to pay for R&D. Jahnigen already knew the inventors of the Croc material, but it took a fair amount of work "to tame this material in a spherical shape and to anticipate its behavioral issues," he said. Along the way, many people donated their time and expertise. The result is a size-5 ball that meets FIFA standards; it's suitable for play and practice but not high-level competition. It's manufactured in Canada.

Jonathan Lea-Howarth works with youth in developing countries, using sports to help empower them and teach them about issues such as HIV and drug use. He's well aware of the need for a durable soccer ball.

"My experience in (the West African nation of) Burkina Faso was that when you give someone a football (soccer ball), it's brilliant, it's like giving them a PlayStation 2; they're very highly prized," he said. "The problem is, it was a semi-arid scrubland with lots of thorns; footballs would get punctured almost instantly. People will nurse a ball like it's a sick relative; they'll pay to get them stitched back up and a new lining put in, but often they don't have the money to do that."

Lea-Howarth traveled to Haiti this year and took about 20 One World Futbols to donate to coaches and children. He plans to return in the fall to run a UNICEF-funded program to create a youth soccer league in Cite-Soleil, the poorest area of Port-au-Prince, and hopes to bring One World Futbols for each team.

"This ball liberates the game of soccer from the soccer field," Tarver said. "There are lots of programs out there that do sports and sports therapy in refugee camps, war zones and poor isolated communities. We're just the ball they can use."